Word Watching answers: July 5, 2005

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(c) The action of absquatulation or decamping. 1847: “Artaxerxes and Euphrosyne, after the absquatulation of their pet daughter with the Irish nobleman incog, were completely confounded.”

RASTIHABITION

(a) Approval, sanction. Adaptation of the Latin ratum, confirmed, habere, to have. 1672: “A ratihabition in deeds is more powerful than a ratihabition in words.”

COZZPOT

(a)A policeman. Perhaps an alteration of the first syllable of copper + pot, by analogy with crackpot and tosspot. 1962: “This cozzpot took me to the police station and in due course I was up in front of old man Henriques again.”

Openings pioneer
A consistent feature of the early games of grandmaster Mark Taimanov, who
sadly passed away last week at the age of 90, was his espousal of dynamic
systems that would have been anathema to the ancient champions of a
classical bent